


Amore Alcolico

by miso_grace



Category: Eurovision Song Contest RPF, Festival di Sanremo RPF
Genre: Bar!AU, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-07-25 14:36:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16199546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miso_grace/pseuds/miso_grace
Summary: Ermal and Fabrizio are co-owners of "Syracuse", they sort of place you need to know about to find or might otherwise stumble upon mostly by accident. But when you're there it invites you to stay a while. It's also the sort of place to bring people together...





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I saw the video where Fabrizio said they should open a pub together and this idea just wouldn't leave me alone.  
> As always, this is unbeta-ed, any and all mistakes are my own  
> Hope you enjoy reading!

Syracuse was a bar tucked away in a small little side street. It was the sort of place where you had to know what you were looking for to find it, even though it was located in the middle of Rome.  
It was the sort of place that was in the neighbourhood, for the neighbourhood. And that meant that even in the height of summer only a few tourists ever stumbled across the threshold, which suited the owners just fine.  
Sure, there were many places that made much more profit, with their owners almost being celebrities in their own right.  
But no, that had never been their goal when they opened Syracuse. No, they had always wanted their place to be the sort of comfy, homely place where people from the neighbourhood could come to relax and meet after a long day at work and where everybody knew one another and where they knew that Mrs Ricci from just down the street only drank her specific brand of beer and that Giuseppe always ordered a fruity cocktail and then wore the tiny umbrella in his hair for the rest of the night.  
And in that they had succeeded.  
And that quite frankly was all they ever needed.

Now, it hadn’t always been Ermal and Fabrizio’s dream to open a tiny pub together. They met each other in university when they had, quite literally, ran into each other one day. Ermal had knocked Fabrizio’s coffee out of his hand, invited him to get coffee together as an apology and they became fast friends and have been ever since.  
Ermal was majoring in languages and was thinking of going into literary translating once he graduated.  
Fabrizio, well, it wasn’t that Fabrizio didn’t have any dreams, he had quite a few of them, the problem was just that he couldn’t ever stick to one for long enough. And so they had both been in their second semester when they met each other, Fabrizio was just already on his third major, after Geography and Classical Studies. Music Education finally seemed to be the right fit though and he stuck to it beyond just a few semesters.  
But then one night in their final year, they had been drinking, Fabrizio suddenly started talking about opening a pub together, in Syracuse preferably.  
Ermal just wrote it of as an alcohol induced joke, but something about Fabrizio’s expression kept niggling on the back of his mind.

And then he managed to get lost one afternoon and stumbled about the most perfect little house for sale with a shop front on the ground floor and he couldn’t help but think that it make for an amazing pub.  
He tried to convince himself that Fabrizio really had just been joking and that he probably had already forgotten about that conversation, but he ended up calling Fabrizio and telling him about his discovery.  
Fabrizio did remember the conversation and was in fact rather excited that Ermal had remembered and had called him.  
When Fabrizio saw the building for the first time it was love at first sight and Ermal could see him already planning a pub, their pub, in the quaint building.

And that’s how Ermal and Fabrizio dropped out of uni in the middle of their last semester to open up a bar together.

Everyone else was completely taken by surprise and probably thought they had a few screws loose. Most of all Giada, who told them exactly how stupid she thought they were being.

The problem now was, that they didn’t have enough money to just buy an entire building in Rome, no matter how small and quaint it was. So they took on jobs and worked as much as physically possible until they had enough money to buy the house.  
Luckily the building hadn’t been sold in the meantime and so they soon found themselves proud owners of a little 3 story building in central Rome. And yes, in hindsight, maybe the thought that somebody else might buy the building should have crossed their mind. But everything had worked out and worrying about that now would really be rather moot.  
They decided that, obviously the ground floor would be the pub, they’d share one of the flats on the second floor and use the other as an office space as well as for some extra storage space and rent out the two flats on the third floor.

They had two new problems though:  
One, neither of them had a clue about running a business. As luck would have it though, Ermal’s friend Marco had majored in business, and after some ~~a lot of~~  convincing ~~and begging~~ he agreed to work with them  
Two, the reason they could afford to buy the building in the first place was, that it needed quite a bit of fixing. So, in order to save money they rounded up all their friends and tried to do as much of the renovations as possible themselves.  
As it turned out Fabrizio had a bit of a talent for renovation works. Ermal on the other hand did not, and after he had hit himself with the hammer for the third time he was relegated to coordinating everybody. Which suited him just fine, since one thing he was talented at was bossing people around and making sure everybody was doing what they were supposed to be doing where they were supposed to be doing when they were supposed to be doing it instead of gossiping like fishwives around the coffee machine ~~looking at you Andrea and Andrea~~.  
And for the works they couldn’t do Fabrizio knew a surprising number of handymen that would do them at a reduced price for them.

The next thing on their agenda was the interior decor and furnishing.Both Ermal and Fabrizio had the same ideas as to how they wanted the bar to look so it should not have been too difficult to choose stuff they both liked.  
Ermal turned out to be rather picky though. And he had expensive taste and Marco had to put his foot down and tell him to remember their budget on more than one occasion.

They had finally, finally found decor that matched both Ermal’s standard and their budget. Everything was in warm brown tones and had an older, rustic charm to it, giving the room a very cozy atmosphere.

And so then they went on to choose the drinks selection they would offer, hired a chef, Fabrizio’s friend Claudio as it happened, and devise a small menu of snacks and hearty dishes with a homemade feel to them. The bar was starting to feel more and more like a bar with every single day.  
And then everything was done and the only thing left to do before the grand opening was finding a name for their pub.  
So their group sat in the bar one afternoon, enjoying a few drinks and brainstorming.

“Syracuse!” Ermal called out suddenly.

Everybody turned to him and looked at him like he had completely lost his marbles.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit of a random name Ermal?” Fabrizio asked.

“Not really, no,” Ermal shook his head, “quite the opposite in fact. Remember the first time you talked about wanting to open a bar? You also said you wanted to open it in Syracuse. And since we’re opening the bar in Rome, not Syracuse I thought we could at least name the bar after that particular idea of yours.”

Fabrizio threw his head back in laughter and like that the bar had found its name.

Ermal and Fabrizio moved into the little flat above the bar, opening day came and went and they settled into their new routine.  
The beginning was slow but thanks to good word of mouth business picked up relatively quickly and they decided to hire a part-time help. Keeping in theme of working with their friends they hired Andrea, who was a creative writing major Ermal had become friends with after they spent an entire guest lecture on modern fiction dragging the lecturer and his disdainful attitude towards young adult literature.

Nowadays the bar was running very well and was known as a neighbourhood centre. Sure, they would never get rich running Syracuse but they made enough to live comfortably and to Ermal and Fabrizio the homely atmosphere and their content regulars were worth much more than being known as the It hotspot.  
Andrea had graduated by now but was still working with them while trying to get his writing published. He was also the one that had suggested holding different events in the pub.  
When they had first opened they really only had served food and drink but now they also had open mic nights, poetry slams and readings, and, much to Ermal’s dismay, karaoke nights every Tuesday.

Today was Tuesday and as much as he loved their patrons Ermal was already dreading all the drunk renditions of Michael Jackson, Whitney Huston or Céline Dion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it!  
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I‘M NOT DEAD!!!!
> 
> Sorry for the long, long wait, Uni, work, and figure skating kinda took over my life, but I am back with a new chapter.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy this, despite the long wait.

Andrea had proposed holding Karaoke nights one evening, knowing full well how much that would annoy Ermal, the little asshole.  
What neither he, nor Ermal had expected was Fabrizio’s immediate enthusiasm.  
And when Fabrizio, hunky, tattooed, band shirt and ripped jeans wearing Fabrizio, decided to crank up the puppy eyes....  
Well, let’s just say that Ermal caved and agreed to Karaoke nights embarrassing quickly.  
Much to his chagrin they were an immediate hit with their patrons

And now he was setting up everything for Karaoke night, muttering under his breath and cursing Andrea and his stupid ideas and Fabrizio and his stupid, pretty face.  
Meanwhile Fabrizio was making sure the bar was ready while Andrea, smug little bastard that he was was sitting on a stool, reclining against the bar, beer in hand and just watching Ermal.  
Ermal glared at them once again before continuing to detangle the wires in his hand.

A few hours later he stood behind the bar, next to Fabrizio, watching a group of middle aged men ~~screeching~~ singing and dancing their hearts out to Britney Spears.

"Well, at least they’re committed to the performance" Ermal said with a sideways glance while pulling a pint.

"Ermal, stop insulting our customers!" Andrea (the younger) hollered from across the room.

"How did you even hear what I said?"

"I didn’t, but the look on your face was more than enough to know what you were thinking!"

Fabrizio just snorted.

——  
"I have never, in my life, heard Céline Dion performed with less emotions. Literally, a robot could do a better job at conveying feelings"

"Ermal, be nice!" Fabrizio tried to chastise him, but failed to hide his amused smile.

"Please, you know I‘m right"

The older man raised his hands in surrender, "Sure, whatever you say"

"Oh piss of, go wipe down some tables or something" Ermal said, whipping his towel at Fabrizio‘s retreating butt.

——  
Later yet, during a particularly bad rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody Ermal turned to Fabrizio, mild despair in his eyes.

"Why are we enduring this every week again?" he asked.

"Oh c‘mon, you secretly enjoy this," Fabrizio said, "besides that, it is one of our busiest night every week. And you love judging our patrons‘ performances, don’t even try to deny it."

"I hate it when you‘re right!" Ermal grumbled

"No you don’t," Fabrizio said airily, "c‘mon, let’s clean up this mess so we can call it a night soon."

Their wannabe Freddie Mercury had been the last performer of the night and everyone else had filtered out quickly afterwards, leaving only the two owners of Syracuse to the thankless job of closing up.

Fabrizio was bent over, wiping down tables and Ermal allowed himself a few moments to appreciate the view before shaking himself out of his stupor and moving to collect empty bottles, glasses, and dishes.

“Seriously though, I still don’t know what possessed me to agree to karaoke nights in the first place.”

“Oh please Ermal, stop bitching about it!” Fabrizio said, albeit fondly.  
“Besides, you got your open mic nights, let us have our fun with karaoke nights. Besides, it just people singing their favourite songs, however badly, it’s not like that’s hurting anyone”

“Well, except for my ears. And good taste”

“Yeah, but you’re a noted music snob.” Fabrizio countered with a laugh.

“What, like you aren’t?” 

“I might be, I’m just better at hiding it.”

“What’s that even supposed to mean, Bizio?”

“Who knows.”

“Alright, so you don’t know either and are just spouting your usual bullshit.”

Fabrizio turned around to face him with a casual shrug. And promptly stumbled over a wire.

God give him strength, why did Ermal even like this man?

“Oh, that reminds me,” Fabrizio said from where he was sitting on the floor, “I have good news, that girl you liked so much from open mic a few weeks back is going to be back again this week.”

“Oh, that lovely!” Ermal said, genuinely happy to hear that. “But you know what would be even better news? If you would finally agree to perform something for open mic night.”

“Yeah right, in your dreams”

Ermal had to quickly turn around to stop himself from blurting out something stupid along the lines of: “Oh, in my dreams you do so much more than just sing for me”

And oh god, Marco would have a field day if he found out about this. He could already see him in his mind, incredulous look on his face, telling him to get his shit together, he wasn’t some stupid teenager with a crush, he was a grown man, ‘seriously Ermal, what’s wrong with you’ while Andrea was hunched over with laughter in a corner, he could see it with perfect clarity.

They cleaned up the rest of the bar in companionable silence, and while Ermal loved their usual, verbal back and forth, tonight he was grateful for the quiet. IT gave him less opportunity to impulsively say something he’d regret later. 

Once they had finished locking up for the night they went up to their shared flat above the bar. Usually they’d sit down for a glass of wine or a cup of tea but today Ermal was tired and really not trusting his brain to mouth filter so he decided to head to bed immediately.

“Good night, Bizio.”

“Good night Ermal, sleep well and sweet dreams!”

And oh god, Ermal was so, so fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading guys and if you liked it, let me know


End file.
